Exchange comes a day after the NDP leader stopped to berate someone outside Parliament who called him a ‘corrupted bastard’
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh found himself sparring over policy and politics with an unexpected interlocutor: Anaida Poilievre, wife of Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Singh later took to social media to write about the fracas. “By now you’ve probably seen the video,” he wrote. “For days now, bullies in Ottawa have been spewing hate and harassing Canadians who don’t agree with them. An Indigenous woman being called a Nazi. Staff being harassed. Journalists being yelled at. That’s the country Pierre Poilievre wants.”
He added: “Me? I believe everyone should feel safe walking our streets. I believe we need to stand up to bullies and shut down hate. Canadians believe in lifting each other up. Not tearing each other down. Stand with us.”
She added: “Why are criminals released so easily? Why are so many court cases tossed? You want safe streets? Then why are you continuously supporting the harmful Liberal policies that caused this mess? You want to talk about the country Pierre Poilievre, my husband, wants? Then listen carefully to his policies and actually watch the man he is. I’m tired of you and your friends portraying my husband as someone he is NOT.”
Poilievre then referenced her immigrant background (she was born in Venezuela) and her husband’s support of “strong women” and their two children.
In her response to Singh, she also referenced her husband’s desire for affordable housing, support for the military, and “a country where hard work pays off.”
“Mr. Singh, the only person you have to blame for the current state of our country and people’s mood and desperation is the man currently in charge, and those who keep him in charge.”
Both posts have been viewed several hundred thousand times, with more than a thousand comments on each.
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